Akame ga Kill! Ep. 23: The boy emperor steps into the ring

— Wave confesses that he admired the military, and yet, the entire nation currently convulses with conflict. It has gotten so bad that people are openly in support of the Revolutionary Army. Surely, he must have heard about the horrible things that the empire has committed. Sure, a naval officer saved his life. That’s just one person, though. You don’t admire an entire organization because of one person.

— Wave: “…a soldier’s duty is to protect the kingdom and its people.” Well, we ain’t doing much of the latter, a fact which Wave even has to admit. As for the former, here’s the thing: you should be a good person first, then whatever you want second. Yes, a soldier should protect the nation that he or she serves. But being a good person takes precedence to that. It’s not that complicated. Wave will now have a change of heart, and in doing so, he’ll likely win over a lot of people. But not with me. It’s too late in my book. When this is all said and done, I would still try him for crimes against the people.

— Tatsumi’s group is tasked with assassinating Onest while the Revolutionary Army keeps everyone else busy. Tatsumi is clearly supposed to be the hero of the story, but he hasn’t really felt like one. First, he doesn’t really have much of an arc. He hasn’t really developed in any significant way, physically or emotionally. First, emotionally… he’s the same person we met at the start of the story. Fine, it’s a shounen-y type of show, so you don’t usually expect to get a whole lot of profound character development. But what you do expect, however, is physical development. You should gradually see Tatsumi get stronger over the course of the series. I don’t really see this, though. Other than receiving Bulat’s Imperial Arms, Tatsumi’s power curve has been boringly flat. You never feel like he’s the strongest or even one of the strongest fighters any time a battle breaks out. It’s always, “Welp, someone has to save Tatsumi’s ass yet again!”

— On the one hand, Run tells the soldiers to leave instead of risking their lives for an empire that is clearly on its last legs. On the other hand, he proceeds to attack our heroes, because, “Hurr, I always finish a job.” He joined the Jaegers because he wanted to change the government from the inside out. Given a chance to either run or away or defect to the Revolutionary Army, however, the guy decides to impede the course of justice instead. These characters are hilariously stupid.

— Wait, wait, Run is going to argue in favor of his position: “Your methods involve too much bloodshed.” What? What? So standing idly by, hoping for the government to change on its own is better? The same government that has no qualms about raping and murdering its own people? Man, he should’ve never opened his mouth. In doing so, he merely confirms it to us that he’s an absolute idiot.

— Besides, what’s done is done. Even if Run had a point, the rebellion is already so close to a success. As such, he may as well help them instead of doubling down on his position and fighting back, which, y’know, would only lead to more bloodshed. Gasp!

— I feel so sorry for Leone’s hips. It must be painful to throw both a punch and your ass out like that.

— In a show full of idiotic characters, I don’t really have much to say about the boy emperor. After all, he’s just a kid, and to top it all off, he’s sheltered. He never really stood a chance, really. No, he certainly deserves to die, but there’s no point dogpiling on a kid.

— Really, Tatsumi? You’re going to try and sway the bad guys in these final moments? Even Akame’s face is like, “Give it a rest, Tatsumi. Just get the job done.”

— Apparently, this is one of those legendary weapons that had been created. The First Emperor went to his scientists, engineers, and researchers, and was like, “Hmm, make me a cosmetic box… and a 1000-feet tall robotic suit of pure death.”

— The show has a penchant for awkward exposition: “Your late parents who died in an unfortunate accident are certainly proud, as well.” Obviously, it wasn’t such an accident, but this is stilted dialogue.

— I don’t even know why they’re going on and on about how the kid is the true heir to the kingdom. When was that ever in doubt?

— This episode is just jam-packed with pointless dialogue. Naturally, Onest feels the need to tell us that they’ll just conveniently turn a blind eye to the fact that they’ve laid waste to half the capital. No, really? I really thought you guys were going to put yourselves on trial and hold an election to appoint a new ruler!

— Yeah, let’s have a conversation with the boy emperor about his feelings. And in the meantime, Tatsumi will nonchalantly rescue a mother and her kid. Oh, not just any kid! A little girl! So you know it’s extra heroic!

— Then on the brink of death, Wave swoops in to play the hero! Yaaaay, we can now forget all the horrible things he’s done and praise him like we do with the bland shounen hero!

— What the fuck is this? A bromance?

— And even Run is now working to save people. But gee, maybe if he had helped earlier instead of going on and on about needless bloodshed…

— What about Akame, you ask? Man, she’s not even involved in the festivities. Tatsumi and Wave get to run around, playing heroes. The last time we saw Akame, however, she was fending off some guards. Woo…

— Oh no! The hero is on his last ropes! Quick, let’s have a poignant encounter with his aniki! Inspiring words! Heroic determination! Let’s throw every trope in the book at this show! RAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWR!!!

— Tatsumi then has his own Spiderman 2 moment, ’cause that’s cool. He gets to be the awesome hero who not only beats the bad guy, but also save innocent people from certain death. As for Akame, she just gets to walk up to the guy and cry her precious maiden tears. Hell, she was barely even in this episode. What a joke.

— Well, this episode wasn’t really impressive, because of two things. First, by nature of its size, the emperor’s mecha can’t be very mobile. As a result, it just stands in one place and shoots lasers. That’s boring to watch. Fine, the action isn’t great. Can we at least appreciate the emotions in the characters? Not really. The boy emperor is just an idiot, so his words are a waste. As for Tatsumi, he’s the bland hero. He doesn’t stand for anything special or interesting. He has no depth of character. As a result, he’s not interesting to watch either. The entire conflict is just bland all around.

The clown didn’t rape him, it raped his class and killed them. His motivation was the same, but the clown was just left out of the anime so it was just some “mysterious creep who somehow is completely above the law”

Esdeath was absent almost during the entirety of this episode, hell even everyone was acting like she doesn’t exist at all, she’s certainly a existence that can change the tides of this revolution and that cannot be ignored oh well, I’m guessing that they don’t know what to do with her at this point and is easier to shoot with the stupidity ray at this fools.
I’m happy that this shit will end next week, I hope Tatsumi stays dead but that seems unlikely.

The dialogue from honest was not meant to be info dumping but funny. I laughed at it. As for the kings talking it was just him voiceing his feelings.The show provided what I come to it for cheap action and cheap laughs. What horrible thing has wave done aside from be a soldier. He has never killed anyone innocent etc. Plus we really do not know if the general public know how evil the empire was.

Screw it just so I don’t look dumb. Wave has never killed. He came from outside the country when he joined Jaeggers. It was the capital that was corrupt mainly so the people really did not know how it was. At the start of the series Tatsumi was just like Wave and wanted to rise up the ranks. The only bad things wave has seen were Seryuu being a total nut case killing the 3 bandits and Esdeath being well just weird she has not been brutal when he has been present. So up until now Wave felt he was protecting the people. If anything the anime gives a horrible exposition for him switching sides since it cut out Honest Son and his group wild hunt, His fight with Honest Son and him confronting Seyuu. The only unjustifiable thing he saw was the emperor going on a rampage which hurt citizens. The capital was not going around doing shit right in front of its citizens it did make a effort to cover things up. So realistically there is no reason to call Wave evil.

I have to say, this strikes me as pretty extreme. I mean, what more can you demand than for a person to act responsibly based on the information available to him or her? Does it make a person evil if someone else, like the government, makes an active effort to deceive that person into wrong behavior? Let’s assume, just for the argument’s sake, that tomorrow it would get uncovered that the assertion of man-made climate change really WAS just one massive conspiracy serving special interests within the scientific community and government at the cost of the common man, and that they’ve been feeding us wrong information all along: Would that revelation make all the people who fought against climate change (but in reality for the scheming scientists’ benefit) retroactively evil?

I think that the author intended for Wave to be perceived exactly that way, i.e. that he was a good person who got deceived into assisting the bad persons, which would then hardly be his fault – if the story wasn’t so damn clumsily written, that is. It is night impossible to swallow that Wave didn’t notice the evils of the empire even though they’ve been staring the audience right into the face from the very beginning. If the author presents the empire as such an obviously evil shithole as he has done, Wave’s excuse of being misinformed doesn’t really hold up, since the relevant information seems to have been readily available if only he took a look around. But that doesn’t mean I think his excuse couldn’t have held up no matter what. If the story was better written, he really could have been a morally good person who unwittingly and tragically assisted evil. Your “Ignorance is evil” line, however, seems to imply that you think something like this could never be the case, which just doesn’t sit right with me.

If I should have misjudged your comment, feel free to ignore my rambling, though.

I mean, what more can you demand than for a person to act responsibly based on the information available to him or her?

That’s not ignorance. Ignorance is a lack of information, and if you don’t have any information, you shouldn’t act. On the other hand, having wrong information doesn’t make you ignorant. It just means you’re wrong for whatever reason. We’ve all made wrong decisions based on erroneous information. If you do your due diligence, however, then it’s not ignorance. It’s just getting the wrong information despite your best efforts. On the other hand, Wave has not really tried to dig for the truth. He has done nothing but claim that a naval officer had saved him, and that’s why he admires the military. Big deal. And likewise, the people who stood idly by as concentration camps were filled up right before their very noses never dug for the truth either. People like Wave get no sympathy from me. Ignorance is evil when you have the responsibility to look for the truth.

I love this post. Man this episode really sucked. Wasn’t interesting, &the events unfolding were too fast ( which is not a bad thing). I dont mind if the pace was fast, it’s just that they highlight the most pointless of things.
And throughout this episode, they were talking to each other when they are hundreds of feet apart? Stupid.
I’m glad that it’s gonna end next week. Fuck it, I’m gonna stick with the manga.
So much potential:,(

Why are you guys so judgemental and technical about the anime . shit. You guys need to feel the anime cause really your lives are horrible. Anime is for entertainment if you like the manga then stfu n read it no one gives a damn but your opinions i do cause this episode was awesome. Ya all can take this message offensively. Fuck you judgmental manga fags

@E Minor, What were people suppose to speak out against the concentration camps only to get thrown in themselves? I don’t understand the point in getting so defensive over whether a cartoon character is evil or not(pretty unusual for someone who comes off as nonchalant towards these cartoons).

That sorta misses the point. Unlike the folks who wanted to speak out against concentration camps, but were too scared too, they at least were a aware that something bad was happening. That isn’t the case with Wave at all.

A lot of extreme comments on here, but I wanted to leave my two cents as well and see who agrees. What the hell happened to this show? Seriously, what the hell happened? The first half started so well and promising and different than most shonen tales, and now it seems like it’s just crapping all over itself? Characters have died to a point that there is no weight or depth to any of their lives any more. Tatsumi really hasn’t made a damn change at all since the middle of the show and is still a weak bastard without substance at this point, …especially with Mine in the ground. They’ve killed off pretty much every character I was interested in, save for one or two that I’m sure won’t get any more backstory, or will probably just get killed off as well, but then again who cares right? I’m actually glad it’s coming to an end soon, but I can’t believe it went from a show with such marvelous potential to just another dark anime that won’t hold a fanbase for long and will probably just be forgotten as some dark, bloody, poorly made attempt at a unique shonen story. It’s like getting hyped up for a great movie and halfway through you end up checking the time and feeling bewildered this is the route it went. Ugh. Well, at least when everyone dies in the end it’ll be a meh moment for the shows closure without fans being surprised whatsoever. I’m sure if Akame lives she will have her stoic same unlikable face since the beginning though, Hooray…

“The first half started so well and promising and different than most shonen tales,”

The only difference I see from standard shonens is the autor having a creepy obssession with torture and rape nonstop as the only forms to establish the antagonists as evil…oh, and people dying for real before the last episode.
There is also some romcom comedy here and there, and light-harem elements (hot chicks in skimpy outfits falling for a bland hero for no reason whatsoever- including a rapist dominatrix nazibitch who goes all deredere out of nothing but…self-inserted fetish-fuel, really)

What is this “marvelous potential” you talk? This show only redeming traits from the very begining were the graphics and soundtrack much above average.

So, can we kill Chancellor Onest and the Emperor now? Up until now that little kid has been, “innocent and manipulated, but he’s not evil… blablabla,” but now… he’s gotten his hands dirty. That little monster just nuked a couple hundred thousand people! So, please, please just kill him. Don’t let him get off with a warning, bad emperor, for your acts of mass murder no supper for you.

As for Onest, I bet he gets cornered by a panicking mob and they just butcher him… which I’m fine with.

So, let me go ahead and call it!! Esdeath dies, but cripples Akame in the process. I’m going to say slices off a leg or arm. Hum, Esdeath… impelled through the heart… that sounds about right. Wave probably dies. I’m going to say that Esdeath kills him for letting Tatsumi die. Leone lives. Najenda… hum… either lives or sacrifices herself for some greater cause. Run lives and helps the country rebuild.

I find the characters somewhat generic but I’m not sure why they don’t come off as boring to me. This just goes to show generic does not equate to boring characters.
I love this anime, regardless of what people say, because at the end of the day, I find the show enjoyable to watch. But if you’re going to label me as ‘a simple minded guy who loves any anime that has cool animations and graphic much like the 7 year old boy over there’, then you, sir, are an over analytical person who cant find happiness or joy in life due to high expectations you set for yourself.
I suggest you let you let your hair down on things where you can, like anime for instance. I find that some of you are being too critical; what for?
I’m sorry, I do understand that you review animes so it’s important for you to be critical. Even so, I don’t see why this anime is that bad. You make it sound like this anime is truly horrible, which I do feel offended.
Yes yes, I admit. I am a butthurt fanboy. That’s why I felt like some justice should be done. At the very least this anime should be average. Or slightly below. I just dont believe that it is a 3 out of 10 or less.
In conclusion… This anime is enjoyable and I dont understand why some people want to make it sound so bad.

@Butthurt: Where did E Minor ever make that insult? I’m pretty sure that it’s not in this post or any of the others (I have read them). What I do see is that many of the people posting comments here are being complete jackasses to him just because he doesn’t like something that you do. Fans really are the worst sometimes.